


structural integrity

by goshemily



Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types, Les Misérables - Victor Hugo
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, M/M, POV Outsider
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-16
Updated: 2015-10-16
Packaged: 2018-04-26 14:16:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 571
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5007925
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/goshemily/pseuds/goshemily
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>how do u subtly tell someone to push u against a wall and make out with u??? asking for a friend</i> </p>
<p><i>grantaire</i>, Joly types, <i>if u think ur being subtle that makes one of us</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	structural integrity

_how do u subtly tell someone to push u against a wall and make out with u??? asking for a friend_

_grantaire_ , Joly types, _if u think ur being subtle that makes one of us_

Of course, subtlety is in the eye of the beholder. It’s entirely possible that Enjolras, trading less-than-veiled barbs with Grantaire across the not-wide-enough café table twenty feet away from Joly’s homework and disaster of a cranberry scone, can’t discern that Grantaire’s putrid cynicism says nothing right now so much as “You make me feel things I don’t want to feel, including that I want to feel your dick.”

Joly has, it’s true, an insider’s insight into R’s real meaning: last night was four bottles between the two of them, and rather more truths. He watches Grantaire thumb at his phone, pretending indifference. Enjolras flushes.

No use in not trying. _tbh i’m a fan of just asking for it._

Grantaire immediately turns around to glare.

Enjolras snatches R’s phone from the table. “Seriously, if all you want is to wind me up so you can ignore me -”

“Give that back!”

He looks down at the screen. “What are you supposed to ask for?”

“Give it back!” Enjolras does, slowly. “I just want you to admit -”

“What?”

Grantaire’s face shutters, and Joly pretends he isn’t watching avidly. He hides behind his phone: _sERTygbna_ , an indication that maybe Enjolras’s grip is as strong as Grantaire dreams.

“What does Joly think you should ask for, R?” Joly sneaks a glance and they’re both ignoring him, Enjolras intent and leaning forward, R refusing to meet his eyes.

Grantaire laughs, more hollowly than Joly likes. “He thinks I should tell you that I like you, Enjolras.”

Enjolras is nonplussed. “Obviously. We’re friends.”

“Are we?”

Enjolras is silent.

“He thinks I should tell you that I _like_ you,” Grantaire says, vicious and fast. “That I want to _make out_ with you.”

Joly can hear his heart pounding in his ears. Always Grantaire picks the hardest path, the one that flays most. This wasn’t what he’d meant R to do, not this way.

“Hilarious, right?” Grantaire’s voice is savage now in how much it’s trying not to show hurt.

“No,” Enjolras says, “not really.” He’s weirdly strangled. Joly wants to give them privacy, but he couldn’t move if he tried. 

Grantaire finally looks at Enjolras. “What.” He sounds dull, flat.

“I mean, if you want to, I’m amenable. Uh. I like you too. That kind of like.” His hands clench on the table.

“What?”

“Not that we have to do anything you don’t want! But if you want to, I don’t know, go out sometime -” The tips of Enjolras’s ears are red.

“And argue some more? In public?”

Enjolras’s mouth twitches. “We’re in public now, Grantaire.”

Joly’s heart flutters.

“I’m just saying. No pressure, but if you want to try, I’d like to try too.”

“Oh.” Grantaire looks at Enjolras’s hands, now palms down in front of him. He looks at Enjolras’s face. He looks at Enjolras’s hands again. “Okay.”

Joly buries himself in his phone to give them a moment alone. _bossuet you won’t believe this inedible excuse for a scone and also -_

There’s a clatter. He looks up. Grantaire’s chair has been knocked over, and -

When Joly finally manages to sneak out, it’s because no one is paying him any attention, because the wall is being put to very good use indeed.

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on tumblr, and originally inspired by a tumblr post.
> 
> In case you're curious, Joly's terrible excuse for a scone is left behind when he finally escapes.


End file.
